Floor Statements

“Mr. Speaker, budget conferees are now meeting or will be meeting shortly to negotiate a budget for the remainder of this fiscal year. And they have a real opportunity to look beyond that mission and lay the groundwork for a long-term solution to our deficits that is balanced and restores certainty to our economy.

“I would ... ask the Majority Leader whether or not there is any thought about bringing to the Floor before the end of the year the immigration bill. And I would yield to my friend for the purposes of a response.”

“Mr. Speaker, this is how we ought to work. This is how the Congress ought to work with one another – all 435 of us. I don't mean that 435 are going to vote for the bill, but we have worked together on this bill.

“Bill Young was my friend. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. Bill Young was an example for us all. I will have the privilege of speaking on Thursday, at his request, at his funeral. Bill and I served on the Appropriations Committee for twenty-three years together. Then I left when I became Majority Leader.

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of my colleagues on either side of the aisle have stated their preference for, as the Gentlelady from North Carolina said, opening the government. They want to open the government as soon as possible and would vote for a clean bill.

“The previous speaker said that the shutdown should be unacceptable. I agree with that. And we could all, within the next half an hour, vote to make the unacceptable not the policy that we are pursuing.

“Now I rise in opposition to this bill that’s been put on the Floor, which is another way to distract from the business at hand: opening up our government. And eight days from now, our government will be in a position for the first time in history where we won’t be able to pay our bills.

“I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and I want to thank my colleague Frank Wolf. There's no harder advocate, more effective advocate for federal employees than Frank Wolf. He and I have worked together for over 32 years on behalf of the interests of those people who work for the American people every day to make them safer, healthier, more informed.

“So we stand ready on this side of the aisle, I say, as one of the leaders of my party, to vote now to open government. And, yes, to do what in a democracy we ought to do: sit down and discuss compromises."

“My friends on this side say they want to keep the government open. We say we want to keep the government open. My friends on this side sent a bill over to the Senate that had $986 billion in funding. We agreed to $986 billion in funding. What's the problem?

“I thank the Gentleman for yielding. There is not a Member of this House who does not respect and support the veterans of this country. The Gentleman who just spoke talked about preventing pain. What we want to do is prevent pain not only to veterans, but to children, to families, to teachers, to medical professionals, to farmers, to all those who every day rely on the federal government to be in operation. Not piecemeal, not choosing between this and that, between the winners and the losers.

“I thank the Gentlelady for yielding. The Gentleman from Georgia said that this health care was about one-sixth of the economy. He's right. [But] this continuing resolution is about 100 percent of the economy.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of this House, there are 435 of us that have been asked by our fellow citizens to come to Washington, D.C., to have the extraordinary privilege of sitting on this Floor and making, they hope, responsible decisions for their country. I regret that the House is not full at this point in time.

“Madam Speaker, today we are considering a measure to fund government only if the Democratic Senate and the Democratic President will agree to dismantle the health care reform law that will help millions of Americans access quality, affordable care. That isn’t going to happen, and it is a blatant act of hostage-taking.

“I thank the Gentlelady and thank her for her leadership on this issue. And I lament with Mr. Lucas that we don't have a bipartisan bill because I know that's what he wanted. That's what he forged. And that's what's been abandoned unfortunately by his party. I think that's sad for the country, it's even sadder for the people who will be so adversely affected.

“Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to remember three of my constituents who tragically lost their lives in Monday's shooting along with nine other innocent victims at the Washington Navy Yard. The entire Washington Metropolitan area is still in shock at the horrific news.

“The Maryland flag, which I think is one of the more distinctive state flags, has four quadrants - two of which represent the Baltimore family, to which the royal charter was given, as the Gentleman observed, and two represent the Crossland family, which was the wife of Lord Baltimore. So I appreciate the Gentleman referring to that. Of course, all of us live in states that were started by immigrants.

“I thank the Gentleman for yielding. What a perfect bill this is. Our Republican friends don't like taxes. They don't like the collection of taxes, and, of course, none of us do. And they don't like affordable care for our citizens, quality care for our citizens, accessible care for our citizens. So with this stroke, they can attack both.

“I thank the Ranking Member of the Rules Committee, my friend, Ms. Slaughter, for yielding. I want to say I have a great deal of respect for the Gentleman from Oklahoma. But I say that this House is not working.

“I thank the Gentleman for yielding. And I rise in support of this legislation. But [I] also thank my friend, Keith Ellison, for his perspective on this, and I want to speak to that, as well. I want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their leadership on this bill.

“This Congress has been the worst Congress for federal employees in which I served. The Gentleman who spoke before me said he ran a business. If you treated your employees as we're treating our employees, they would have all quit. They would have all walked out. They would have said that epithets that are used, that ‘bureaucrats’ spit out, as a pejorative term – the people who make this government run.”

“I want to thank Dr. Burgess, and I want to thank Mr. Butterfield for their leadership on this bill, but I certainly want to thank my friend, Dr. Phil Roe, who has been a delight to work with. It’s taken us a little bit of time, but we stayed after it. We have stayed after it because, as Dr. Burgess and Judge Butterfield have observed, this will save lives. This will save the lives of children – this will save the lives of children who do not know that they have an allergy which is life threatening.